For 189 years the Butler-McCook House & Garden was home to four generations of a family who participated in, witnessed, and recorded the evolution of Main Street between the American Revolution and the mid-twentieth century.

Inside are the original furnishings ranging from Connecticut-crafted colonial furniture to Victorian-era toys and paintings to samurai armor acquired during a trip to Japan. The objects were accumulated over the course of almost two centuries by members of this extraordinary clan, which included physicians, industrialists, missionaries, artists, globetrotters and pioneering educators and social reformers.

The house’s exterior looks much as it did when it was built in 1782. Behind the property is a restored Victorian ornamental garden, originally planned to incorporate the vestiges of an earlier garden by pioneering landscape architect Jacob Weidenmann in 1865. Today, the garden is cared for by the West Hartford Garden Club.

The Butler-McCook House is now the oldest remaining home in Hartford. In fact, two of only four remaining 18th-century buildings in Hartford have been preserved thanks to the care of the McCook family. In addition to their family home, they also offered their backyard to preserve the Amos Bull House, which now serves as the headquarters for Connecticut Landmarks.